The machinery that operates a professional hockey team like the Florida Panthers is intimately intertwined, where the income statements impact the standings, where the winning percentage influences the bottom line, and where it all guides the future of a franchise.

He comprehends how an arena’s naming rights and a team’s television deal affect the floor of a franchise’s revenue, how the ticket sales or decline of them impact the ceiling of a franchise’s revenue, how revenue generation can influence the payroll and on-ice product, and how all the factors circle back to each other.

The Panthers are a low-revenue team (“We’re close to dead last,” Viola said), and he understands that. He sees the double-digit millions of dollars the team hemorrhages each year and has molded a budget to account for that, saying the Panthers would like to be in the middle of the league in payroll and adding that “there never has been” an internal cap to limit general manager Dale Tallon.

While official salary cap upper and lower limits for next season haven’t been announced yet by the NHL, Viola said the Panthers would like to spend around $75 million should the cap settle at an expected $80 million and the floor at $60 million.

Viola said the team would spend to the cap for “a long-term transformative player.”

Last season, the Panthers had the seventh-lowest cap hit in the league ($68.14 million). The year before, they ranked third-lowest ($64.08 million). In 2015-16, Florida had the 11th-lowest cap hit ($67.48 million). Each of the last three Stanley Cup champions were top three in the league in spending.

While the distinction between an internal cap and a budget can be minimal, Viola rebutted the notion that an internal cap mandated last summer’s purge of Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith during Vegas’ expansion draft. He pointed to spending more money overall, and replacing Marchessault and Smith’s cap hits ($5.75 million) with free-agent acquisitions Radim Vrbata and Evgenii Dadonov ($6.5 million).

He walked through the math of trading Jason Demers (cap hit of $4.5 million with more than $500,000 retained by Florida) for Jamie McGinn ($3.33 million), and brought up the raises to Mark Pysyk and Aaron Ekblad. The Panthers also shed Jaromir Jagr’s $4 million salary.

“I don’t think it’s an accurate perception there,” said Viola, who also referred further questions about the expansion draft to Tallon. “We actually spent more.”

Still, in dumping Smith and Marchessault, the Panthers freed themselves of $25.75 million in future obligations and opened up years of flexibility. Commitments to Vrbata and Dadonov cost Florida $14.5 million.

The Florida Panthers unveiled their 25th anniversary logo on Friday, June 15, at Esplanade Park in Fort Lauderdale.

(Taimy Alvarez)

Vrbata and Dadonov combined for 33 goals and 46 assists, and Vrbata retired at season’s end. Smith and Marchessault totaled 49 goals and 86 assists while playing on one of the league’s best lines in Vegas.

Earlier this summer, Tallon said the Panthers had the means to pursue big-name free agents. This year’s free agent class has pieces Florida could use in forwards John Tavares and James van Riemsdyk, plus defenseman John Carlson. But those players will command massive, long-term contracts the Panthers historically have not given out.

Viola said he could envision scenarios where the Panthers play at the cap, or at below the mid-way mark, noting that the league’s collective bargaining agreement “requires enormous amounts of discipline in how you develop your players and how to reward them.”

Florida has more than $9 million in cap space before an anticipated bump in the cap. It already signed defenseman Bogdan Kiselevich to a one-year, $925,000 contract.

“You want to spend your money judiciously,” Viola said. “You want to time your big spend around the big free agents. You want to save cap space for the players you know are going to be here for a while. It’s a complex exercise.”

Florida could also be in line for expensive extensions in the next few years should players like Henrik Borgström, Owen Tippett and Jared McCann live up to their first-round expectations. Viola’s ownership has shown it will spend on homegrown talent, and they’ve inked Ekblad, Mike Matheson, Aleksander Barkov, Vincent Trocheck and Jonathan Huberdeau to extensions totaling $222.9 million.

More revenue would free up more money to spend. But the reality in South Florida — a non-traditional hockey market with three other professional sports teams, three Division I football programs and seemingly endless entertainment options — is that winning breeds popularity.

“I think if you win, you got the best fans in the world,” Viola said. “I think it’s like any other city. You don’t win, people are going to lose trust and confidence in the team. It’s a commitment to be a fan. It’s an economic sacrifice.”

Under Viola, the Panthers have not won consistently. They made the playoffs once. Three times did they finish sixth or seventh in the eight-team Atlantic Division. Consequently, in the last five seasons, this is where Florida finished in average attendance: 28th, 26th, 24th, 30th and 29th. Last season, they drew 13,851 fans per home game at the BB&T Center.

Through some rough and quick calculations, Viola estimated that the Panthers could nearly emerge from the red simply by attracting league-average attendance revenue.

“We’ve not done a good enough job to this point, you can quote me, on earning the patronage of the hockey fans of South Florida,” Viola said. “We just got to get better. Work at it every day. I can understand fans’ frustration. Fans want to win, they give their heart and soul. These tickets are expensive and they’re raising families. To come to a hockey game is a fundamental economic commitment. We get it.”

Even with substantial annual losses, Viola said the team is in a better position financially than when he bought the team. Under previous ownership, the team was losing upwards of $30 million a year.

The team’s financial well-being is of public concern, due to the Panthers’ deal with Broward County that pays the franchise $86 million to stay in Sunrise through 2028. The agreement, voted on by Broward County commissioners in Dec. 2015, came at a time when the team’s future in the area was in doubt.

Las Vegas didn’t have a team yet. Seattle’s expansion bid hadn’t progressed. Rumors flew around Quebec City and Kansas City. The Panthers were seldom excluded from the whispers.

While the deal allowed the Panthers to stay for 13 more seasons, it also presented an out clause. If the team lost at least $100 million in the first seven seasons, it could leave prior to the ninth year (2023-24) after a year’s notice. Should the franchise’s financial fortunes remain unchanged, the situation could be triggered.

“Yeah, but I live in South Florida, I don’t want to move the team,” said Viola, who will move into the Auberge residences in Fort Lauderdale upon their completion. “It’s not my preference. If you want to make the article juicy, it’s not my first, second or third choice to leave South Florida. … That’s the deal, but that’s not the desire.”

“What really excites me is the idea of bringing the fans here a winner,” Viola said. “The fans here are fantastic, the hockey fans. I see them when we’re winning, what it means to them. That excites me. I want to do it as much for the community and the fanbase as for any other reason.”

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Florida Panthers head coach Bob Boughner on his team's win over the San Jose Sharks.

Florida Panthers head coach Bob Boughner on his team's win over the San Jose Sharks.

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Florida Panthers head coach Bob Boughner on his team's win over the San Jose Sharks.

Florida Panthers head coach Bob Boughner on his team's win over the San Jose Sharks.

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Florida Panthers Vincent Trocheck talks about his team's need to stay confident after beating the San Jose Sharks.

Florida Panthers Vincent Trocheck talks about his team's need to stay confident after beating the San Jose Sharks.

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Florida Panthers center Frank Vatrano on his four points in win over the San Jose Sharks.

Florida Panthers center Frank Vatrano on his four points in win over the San Jose Sharks.

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Panthers allow 5 goals in loss to Columbus.

Panthers allow 5 goals in loss to Columbus.

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Panthers lose two straight games and try to avoid another slow start to their season.

Panthers lose two straight games and try to avoid another slow start to their season.